On April 8, Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming and Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Ruiz signed the China-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement in Beijing respectively on behalf of their own governments. The Free Trade Agreement is the first one of a package of free trade agreements signed by China with Central American countries and a milestone in the history of the two countries’ relations. Both parties agreed to implement the agreement in the latter half of 2010 in the wake of completing related approval procedures.

The signing of China-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement indicated the strong resolution of the two countries of insisting on opening up to the outside world and fighting against the trade protection under the background of the global economic crisis, which will further promote bilateral mutual benefits and double win, exert an important role for the two countries in jointly coping with the world’s financial crisis, adjusting industrial structure and speeding up the pace of growth and offer a vaster space of development for bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Source: MOFCOM